Hay Festival Querétaro 2023 – General Programme

The geographies of María Dueñas (Spain) place the protagonist of Por si un día volvemos in Oran in the 1920s. Although she has, on the face of it, crossed the Mediterranean to escape poverty, every flight has more than one motive, and as the plot unfolds, we will peel back all the layers of her story. The author of The Time In Between, Las hijas del capitán and Sira retains those characteristic elements —migratory movements, courageous women as protagonists— that have made her one of the most important and widely read writers in the Spanish-speaking world. In conversation with Romina Pons.

Does the American Dream exist? Today, the concept no longer shines quite as brightly as it once did, and the idea has given way to new American dreams: a series of alternative perspectives that reflect the many realities coexisting on the continent. Come and see how an episode of the Hay Festival podcast is recorded live in Spanish, and listen to the thoughts of Connie Garrido Sicilia and Elaine Vilar Madruga on new ways of writing and living.

Presenters: Iñaki Lasa Etura, Carlos Millet and Luis Pérez

Scripting: BullterrierFM and Hay Festival Internacional

Production: BullterrierFM

Esta improbable tierra prometida is a living chronicle of a continent. This is Latin America as seen through the eyes and pen of the essayist Alma Guillermoprieto (Mexico). It is a compendium of violence, power and beauty, forming her third volume of essays dedicated to the region and completing a portrait of tragedy and glory in the age of populism and demagoguery. It features interviews with murderers and relatives of their victims; conversations with thoughtful politicians and heads of state; and with artists, street sweepers… This is the Latin America of the recent past. In conversation with Javier Lafuente.

En lengua privada is a collection of short stories by Emiliano Monge that blurs the limits between fiction and non-fiction. These tales are written in italics, because the author of Los vivos, No contar todo and Las tierras arrasadas constructs the texts in this book using techniques typical of the essay, literary journalism and biography, while playing with language, ideas and experience.

The 2026 Men’s World Cup has now come to an end. Spain won the title in what may well have been Messi and Ronaldo’s swansong; Mexico made us dream again… But let’s pause for a moment and take a critical look at football: racism and homophobia on the pitch and in the stands; violence cloaked in the guise of passion; and blatant structural corruption. In Otro futbol es posible, Paulina Chavira Mendoza and Juan Jesús Garza Onofre not only highlight these failings, but also propose alternatives —many inspired by women’s football— for a fairer and more humane game.

Accesibility: interpretation into Mexican Sign Language

The Hay Festival Queretaro book clubs offer intimate events with a selection of the festival guests. These are spaces to talk in greater depth about these authors’ most recent works. At this event, Iveth Luna Flores (Mexico) will talk to Paula Astorga about Neblina afuera.

Book to be read before attending

Does the American Dream exist? Today, the concept no longer shines quite as brightly as it once did, and the idea has given way to new American dreams: a series of alternative perspectives that reflect the many realities coexisting on the continent. Come and see how an episode of the Hay Festival podcast is recorded live in Spanish, and listen to the thoughts of Jeremías Gamboa, Rosa Ramírez Mazaheri and Martín Solares on new ways of writing and living.

Hay Festival en español podcast, live.

Presenters: Iñaki Lasa Etura, Carlos Millet and Luis Pérez

Scripting: BullterrierFM and Hay Festival Internacional

Production: BullterrierFM

The Illegals, written by Shaun Walker (UK), The Guardian’s correspondent for Central and Eastern Europe, is the story of Russia’s most secret and long-running espionage programme. Established in the wake of the Bolshevik Revolution and still active today, this system has, for over a century, infiltrated other countries with citizens of Soviet origin –and agents recruited abroad– so that they blend into everyday life. The programme, which has provided its operatives with false identities, has sought to gain the trust of those around them and obtain key information for the government. In conversation with BBC Mundo journalist Juan Carlos Pérez (Colombia), Walker discusses these spies known as “illegals”.

Simultaneous interpretation from English to Spanish available

Defining María Galindo (Bolivia) is to talk about anarcho-feminism; about the Mujeres Creando movement; the idea of the “tecnoshaman”; and about books such as Feminismo bastardo, Ninguna mujer nace para puta and No se puede descolonizar sin despatriarcalizar. About occupying the streets, as if they were trenches; about deconsecrating the academy; and disputing feminism from the south and from the periphery; all through activism, campaigning and provocation. There are many “Galindos” in this unmanageable writer, whom we will meet at this event with Natalia Toledo.

There are stories best told in the first person. From memory, from the wound. Such as Reliquia by Pol Guasch (Spain), a non-fiction account of the absence of a father who chose to take his own life; Neblina Afuera by Iveth Luna Flores (Mexico), a work that explores family, work and writing as forms of resistance; and El cielo en casa by Manuel Marsol (Spain), where a photograph of a penalty kick taken by his father sets off an inward journey through unexpected paths and celestial bodies. And so, when one looks back, one realises that memories are often linked to the bond with one’s father, and to everything that surrounds it.

The Hay Festival Querétaro book clubs offer intimate gatherings with a selection of festival guests and they provide a space for in-depth discussion of writers’ most recent works. At this event, Julia Didriksson (Mexico) will talk about Cuando hablamos de amor with Paula Astorga.

Book to be read before attending

After becoming the youngest author to win the prestigious Booker Prize for The Inheritance of Loss, Kiran Desai (India) went on to publish her next novel straight away. However, The Solitude of Sonia and Sunny comes after two decades of letting her memories of India simmer. As in her previous novel, the story is set in both the United States and India, but also in Mexico, where she lived for a time, which helped her to understand American influence from a different perspective. Sonia and Sunny’s story is one of love, migration and rootlessness and, above all, of the different kinds of loneliness that emerge on the periphery.

Simultaneous interpretation from English to Spanish available

We welcome you to a very special evening, during which the Teatro de la Ciudad de Querétaro will be transformed into a sort of makeshift operating theatre, and every verse by Gilraen Eärfalas (Mexico) will serve as the thread that stitches up the wounded heart. Behind this name with elvish overtones lies an unconventional writer, who is also a clinical laboratory technician and a general practitioner by training. This expertise resonates deeply in her recent collection of poems, De anatomía poética, from which she will recite, present and explain selected poems. Where there is a wound, there was blood; and if it flowed, it is because something made it pulse. A warm, intimate and cosy evening to delve into the gigiverse.

In a country where literature often tackles the most horrific forms of violence in society, Liliana Blum (Mexico) has surprised everyone by doing the same with the most sordid aspects of human nature. Pandora explored sexual paraphilias, perversions and relationships rife with abuse, fatphobia and social complicity. She has since continued to delve into the macabre with El monstruo pentápodo and Cara de liebre. A decade later, she has just reissued Pandora, with a foreword written by her and previously unpublished chapters. An unmissable opportunity to reopen the box of the monstrously human.

No Give Up Maan! ¡No te rindas! by Hazel Robinson Abrahams, forms part of UNAM’s Vindictas collection. A novel about the Colombian Caribbean set in the archipelago of San Andrés, Providencia and Santa Catalina. A forthright critique of institutions and conventions. Cristina Bendek, also from San Andrés and author of the introduction to this edition; Rosa Beltrán, Coordinator of Cultural Outreach at UNAM; and Socorro Venegas, Head of the Directorate-General for Publications and Publishing Promotion, discuss this work, seminal in the literature of the Caribbean southwest.

While in books such as Privacy is Power the philosopher and Oxford University lecturer Carissa Véliz focused on the dangers of handing over our personal data to large corporations without understanding the consequences of doing so, she now tackles a more unsettling issue: the future that lies ahead. Once again, she warns us that blindly trusting technology leaves us vulnerable. In Prophecy, Véliz focuses on the history and ethics of predictions, analyses how artificial intelligence and surveillance are redefining our concept of humanity, and warns of the risk of taking everything AI says at face value. She reaches an inevitable conclusion: a free society does not need more predictions, but better preparation. In conversation with Eduardo Rabasa, editor at Sexto Piso.

Maps are never neutral. They define borders, reflect power relations, record conflicts, and reveal the ways societies imagine and organise the world. At a time of profound geopolitical change, shaped by territorial disputes, migration, the climate crisis, and shifting global power dynamics, maps have taken on renewed significance. Yasnaya Elena A. Gil (Mexico), Mario Arriagada (México), Kiran Desai (India), Shaun Walker (UK), and Eley Williams (UK) will each offer a different way of reading and narrating the world. Each will choose a map—physical, cultural, linguistic, or emotional—and discuss how these maps shape our understanding of identity, memory, territory, and belonging.

Simultaneous interpretation from English to Spanish available

The resounding success of the honest and frank Canción sin miedo turned Vivir Quintana (Mexico) into a feminist icon throughout Latin America. But behind every icon there is always a person: a life made up of stories, acts of resistance and a heritage. Sobre-vivir para la música is exactly that: a personal diary, a celebration of everything that is Vivir Quintana – her words, notes, songs, photographs and drawings. It offers an open window into her story and that of the voices that have accompanied her. The conversation will be complemented by several live songs from the artist recently nominated for a Latin Grammy for Best Singer-Songwriter Album.

Accesibility: interpretation into Mexican Sign Language available

When you begin reading The Dance and the Fire by the Mexican author Daniel Saldaña París, winner of the 2020 Eccles Institute & Hay Festival Global Literature Prize, and Apuntes para una despedida by the Spanish author Javier Serena, editor of the magazine Cuadernos Hispanoamericanos, there is a tension that emanates from the pages and envelops you like mist. There is a constant sense of menace in the relationship between three friends who are reunited and share a past that remains unresolved (The Dance and the Fire); and the same is true of the final stages of a romantic relationship heading for its end (Apuntes para una despedida).

The Hay Festival Queretaro book clubs offer intimate events with a selection of the festival guests. These are spaces to talk in greater depth about these authors’ most recent works. At this event, Marta Jiménez Serrano (Spain) will talk to Miguel de la Cruz about Oxígeno.

Book to be read before attending